Count yourselves lucky, Gears of War lovers. Unbeknownst to you, one of the most annoying enemies in Epic Games' sci-fi shooter franchise could have gotten even more aggravating. I've seen it in action and, guys, we're lucky this thing hasn't made it past the testing stage.

The video above is from the Gears of War panel from Comic-Con 2012, where Epic's Cliff Bleszinski and Rod Fergusson talked about the past, present and future of the Xbox 360 exclusive series. At the panel, the pair talked about some of the inspirations that Gears fans already know well, like the destroyed beauty motif that's behind Sera's look and how old-school bayonets inspired the creation of the Lancer.

But what surprised most attendees was the look at the Armored Ticker, a metal-plated variant of Gears' widely reviled insectoid enemy. The idea, said Bleszinski, was that players would have to repel the rolling antagonists using the gunfire from their weapons. Then you'd have to wait until the shell opened up, presumably, to land fatal strikes on the Armored Ticker.

Now you may look at the prototype test video and say "Hey, that doesn't look that bad." And you'd be right. But imagine 20 of these things coming towards you, forcing you to burn off ammo when supplies might be scarce. Not so harmless now, are they? I, for one, am glad these creatures aren't in a Gears game yet.